Lenovo IdeaPad Y510p

Acer Aspire R7

Asus VivoBook S500CA

Vizio CT15T-B0

Seventeen-inch gaming rigs and 11- to 13-inch tablet convertibles may hog the spotlight, but if there was a picture in the dictionary under "laptop," it'd probably be of a 15-inch model—the most popular screen size for mainstream desktop replacements.

The best 15-inch laptops (a generic term; most have screens measuring 15.6 inches diagonally) are more than ready to serve as your only PC, with features ranging from comfortable, backlit keyboards to powerful quad-core processors. They're also ready to carry from room to room, such as from your desk to a conference room for a presentation or home for a weekend's work. At five to six pounds, however, most are a bit heavy and bulky for a daily commute or business travel; 14-inch and smaller systems fill that role.

Vizio CT15T-B0

That said, a few 15-inch notebooks are thin and light enough for briefcase duty. The Vizio CT15T-B0 is just 4.8 pounds and 0.7 inch thick, with an aluminum case that's almost as sleek as Apple's MacBook Air and its ultrabook competitors (though the Vizio doesn't qualify as an ultrabook because it has an AMD, not Intel, processor).

Speaking of Apple, the MacBook Pro with Retina Display is also relatively svelte at 4.5 pounds, partly because, like the Vizio, it jettisons the optical drive found in most 15-inch laptops (usually a DVD±RW burner; in upscale multimedia models, a Blu-ray player or burner). The Retina Pro also replaces the usual hard drive with an Air- or ultrabook-style solid-state drive for faster, more reliable storage. That's still relatively scarce in the 15-inch segment, but a growing number of systems pair a conventional hard drive with a small (say 24GB or 32GB) SSD cache for speedier application loads and resumes from hibernation.

The Vizio and Apple each earn points for exceeding economy models' rock-bottom screen resolution of 1,366x768 pixels—the CT15T-B0 with an HD-video-content-worthy 1,920x1,080 (also known as 1080p), the Retina Pro with a stunning 2,880x1,800. The latter is enough to mimic the experience of using dual desktop monitors, or to edit 1080p video in a window that takes only 40 percent of the display, with plenty of room for timelines and toolbars.

Both the Vizio and affordable models like the Asus VivoBook S500CA court Windows 8 (and, in a few weeks from this writing, Windows 8.1) users with convenient touch screens for tapping and swiping through tiles and apps. The Acer Aspire R7 combines a 1,920x1,080 touch screen with a unique "Ezel hinge" that lets you position the display in tablet, easel, or presentation modes. Even in conventional clamshell or laptop mode, the R7's radical placement of the touch pad above instead of below the keyboard encourages touch-screen use.

Acer Aspire R7

The Aspire R7 also has four instead of the usual two speakers for above-average sound for multimedia playback. A few 15-inch laptops, like the Vizio CT15T-B0, add a small internal subwoofer for better bass response.

We've mentioned quad-core processors, which pack enough power for video and image editing apps (though inexpensive laptops' dual-core chips are adequate for office productivity). Users who plan to play games on their laptops should look for discrete graphics instead of the integrated graphics built into current Intel and AMD processors. One gaming laptop, the Lenovo IdeaPad Y510p, packs something found in only a few 17- and 18-inch big rigs—dual graphics processors, thanks to an innovative design that lets a second graphics adapter plug into the optical drive bay.

The best 15-inch laptops have all the ports and connectors found on a contemporary desktop, including at least three USB 3.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet as well as Wi-Fi, and two of the three video output standards—VGA, HDMI, and DisplayPort—for connecting an external monitor. Apple laptops are the pioneers of Thunderbolt ports, for plugging in high-speed storage arrays or high-resolution displays.

Finally, most 15-inch models offer a spreadsheet-friendly numeric keypad alongside the keyboard. If possible, check the keyboard and touch pad for comfort and typing and tapping feel before you buy. Give extra points for dedicated Home, End, PgUp, and PgDn keys and multimedia control keys, as opposed to systems that double up those functions on the cursor arrows or F1 through F12 keys.

Our Verdict: Lenovo updates its already excellent Y Series gaming laptop with a "Haswell" CPU and dual GTX 750M graphics, resulting in even better performance. But the price could be cut by halving the RAM, and we'd like to see a real solid-state drive in this price range. Read Our Review

Our Verdict: This well-built, attractive laptop comes with an innovative hinge that lets you place its beautiful screen in some highly useful positions. We did find the placement of the touch pad counterproductive, though. Read Our Review

Our Verdict: Asus' latest VivoBook packs a spacious touch screen into a sleek, slim chassis for a price that's hard to beat. But its surprising heft, slippery keyboard, and intrusive touch pad may make you want to leave this laptop at home. Read Our Review